


Live at Nightfall

by OmniNom



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Female Reader, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, I just wanna say Michael is the bane of my existence, Is Reader Even Human?, M/M, Multi, Multiple Endings, Other, Reader is Not a Survivor or a Killer, Reader-Insert, Slow-ish burn, idk - Freeform, male reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28037709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmniNom/pseuds/OmniNom
Summary: You are unsure whether there was a life for you before this, before the Entity.Memories are lost to you, yet you find that the urge to feel human makes you wish you had any. More than anything, you wish you could just feel something aside from this soul-crushing loneliness.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	Live at Nightfall

**Author's Note:**

> So this is actually the fic that inspired my other Dead by Daylight fic with the Legion/Reader! I wasn't sure if I was gonna publish it but eh, might as well.  
> Also the Reader will be Gender Neutral for the entire fic unless there are certain *ehem* chapters that are written specifically otherwise.  
> So enjoy the adventures of Reader, who is neither a Killer or Survivor! :D

The first waking memory you could recall was darkness.

Darkness and long grass, and a vast night sky without stars.

It was eerily quiet, and so impossibly still. Your eyelids twitch before they open and blink, as you sit upright, tall grass tickling your bare arms and face. You can just barely peer over the towering vegetation, so you stand, shaky as a newborn doe until your feet are flat on the ground. Around you is nothing but tall, quivering grass as far as the eye can see, accompanied by that endless black sky.

You take a step forward, two, three, until you find yourself walking an unmarked path to nowhere. 

And then you were running. 

Something about it was so exhilarating, excitement building up inside of you, but also a sense of existential dread. It was a confusing, euphoric hysteria that made you start spinning into a dance as you ran through the reaching grass. Skipping, grinning, and laughing, until eventually you collapse back into the grass breathless, facing up towards the sky.

What a strange feeling; Fear and delight, in perfect balance.

There's a strange shifting around you, like a warm pulse coming in a wave through the grass. You blink and sit up again, feeling another strange feeling, this time in your throat.

" _ Hhhmmn... _ "

Another vibration in the air, like the atmosphere was laughing at what seemed to be your attempt to speak.

_ "My, what a cute thing you turned out to be." _

The noise, the  _ voice,  _ seemed to come from your head, rather than another person present. It doesn't particularly alarm you. If anything, the voice seems familiar, but it sounded so strange. Different octaves and pitches, belonging to different ages and sexes, to different languages and species.

All at once.

" _ Faaaaahh... _ "

You breathe out in response to the presence, trying to reach out to it, but the air vibrates with its laugh again.

_ "Do not struggle too much, my heart. My precious light..." _

You cock your head as the voice chastises you, but you only feel more encouraged to interact with it. You hum and stand to your feet, spinning on your heel to look around you. There was nothing there, but it definitely  _ felt  _ like something was there.

" _ Whm... _ Whaaah... _ Wh _ ...Who...?"

Your own voice echoed, sounding strange to you, but human. Enough, at least.

The air pulses again.

_ "You are a quick learner, by all means...Even if you've no poor soul to learn from. Tell me, my heart, what do you see? What do you feel, being surrounded by this nothingness?" _

That query gives you pause, and you look down at your feet as your brow furrows in confusion. It felt...troubling? A somewhat heavy feeling in your ribcage, and an aching pull in your heart.

Lonesome.

_ "My dear, I have scores of toys at your disposal. All you must do is need and you shall receive. _ "

"I...I am...?"

" _ Who you are...will be shaped in time. Grow, play until you grow tired...And return to me once you've had your fill." _

And then, the darkness overtook you.

~ ~ ~

Your consciousness returns to you while you walk.

Where were you walking, exactly?

There were trees all around you, gnarled and dying. The grass was shorter here, if just a little. Your bare feet skim across rocks and roots that twisted through the broken earth below you.

This place was unfamiliar to your memory, but your body felt like it recognized it.

A soft light breaks through the trees ahead, causing you to blink and press forward more hesitantly. There are sounds- no, voices -in this place. Individual voices, belonging to different people. You lean against the harsh bark of a tree once you come close enough to the voices. Eyes peering towards the voice, towards the source of light, and you see a campfire, crackling, and popping in the middle of everything.

There were people here.

Your heart started to hammer faster in your chest, briefly letting you forget about that ache from earlier. You start to come towards them, wanting to interact with them until one of them laughs, probably at something someone else said, but it startles you so badly you scurry away to hide behind a tree further away from the group of people.

A deep frown overtakes your lips. You weren't sure if you were terribly fond of how loud they were but...surely that sound couldn't mean any harm. You hesitate to try and approach the group again, but as you're about to leave, and have started walking away, you hear movement behind you.

"Hello?"

A voice.

A  _ person. _

You instantly freeze.

Your head turns, allowing you to glance at the person in your peripheral vision. It's a woman, with lighter hair and a blue top. She's looking in her direction, but you don't think she can really see you. Maybe she thought you were one of the  _ others _ .

"Who is that? Hey, they're about to start another game of black jack. You should go join them."

You flinch, ready to bolt from the attention. And the woman obviously notices and puts her hands up to show she meant no harm.

"Hey,  _ hey _ , relax. Bad trial? C'mon, I'm sure Claudette wouldn't mind trading some of her stuff."

Turning, you stare her down, unsure if you should actually join her and the rest of those people around the campfire.

You open your mouth to speak, but start coughing as soon as the first sound comes out. The woman steps forward, concerned as she places a hand on your shoulder. A sharp intake through your nose and suddenly your head snaps up, eyes burning into her in a hard, blank faced stare. She's startled, but doesn't move away at first. But as the trees around you seem to physically groan and creak in tension, she slowly pulls her hand away.

She's squinting at you in the darkness, eyes finally starting to adjust. 

She doesn't recognize you.

"You...Are you a new survivor?"

The only response you offer her is an empty stare.

"Certainly don't look like a killer...Come on, follow me. The only place the killers aren't allowed is by the fire."

She reaches her hand forward slowly this time, giving you time to react appropriately as she takes your hand in her's. It's warm. You like that it's warm.

"The name's Laurie, by the way. Yours?"

You give a sound that could only be described as a mix of a hum and a garble, and she makes an inquisitive noise in turn.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Let's just sit you down and give ya the short of things."

Apprehension rises in your chest the closer you grow to that glowing light, but Laurie’s hold on you helps keep you grounded, and wards away that strange aching emptiness inside of you. So you follow that feeling, and Laurie, until you both stood on the outside of the survivor’s clearing.

Someone must have spotted the two of you because one of the group calls out to Laurie.

“Hey  _ la miel _ , I thought you were going for a walk. Did you change your mind or…”

They trail off, having spotted the figure behind their fellow survivor. The one who called out to her, a bustier woman with dark hair hair, has a look that was conflicted with both confusion and curiosity.

“Who is that?”

“I found them- I was going through the brush and they were just kind of...standing there, facing away from camp.”

There’s an unsure, terse silence among the group as they looked at you expectantly, and you were starting to become uncomfortable. You cower behind the blonde woman, pressing your back into the back of her shoulder as one of your hands curls into a fist at the back of her shirt, the other still interlocked with her own hand.

“They uh, sure do seem to like you Laurie…”

A man with a full beard, donned in darker clothing to match his sky-black hair chips in, seated further at the side of the fire.

“Well, I’ll be damned if we’re being so rude! We haven’t even gotten a name out of them yet!”

Another man, wearing shades and a hat is seated across from the heavier beared one, shuffling what looks to be a stack of cards. Next to him is a woman with lighter hair swept over her head, fixed into place with a pair of goggles. On his other side is the woman who spoke up earlier, with dark hair tucked into a big, neat bun.

“ _ 老人 _ ...That’s not how you ask for people’s names, jackass.”

“Ey, what’cha say now? I swear one of these days I’mma learn that language of your’s and then you’ll be in trouble, Yui.”

“そうだね.”

Laurie makes a noise in her throat that cuts their soon-to-be bickering short, redrawing their attention back to you quickly.

“I don’t think...they’re comfortable enough to do that.”

“Whatchu mean? That sounds like horseshit if I ever heard it.”

“I don’t know, I don’t think they’re...all  _ there  _ yet. I think there’s...something wrong with them?”

There’s another silence, though this one feels a bit more patient. You probably wouldn’t have known it, but hell, the survivors fully understood the confusion of being ripped away from their world, and being thrown into the torrent horrors of the Entity’s realm.

There’s a low murmur between the group here, and you relax your hold on Laurie. The campfire seems to burn a bit brighter now, and the darkness around everyone didn’t seem as dark.

“Well, what about No-Name, then? Can’t call them...person or whatever?”

“Oh, maybe No-Face? That would be cute”

“From that anime movie?”

The girl with the goggles, Yui, suggested the second name, and the larger bearded man seemed entertained with the idea. The man with the shades grunts, quickly becoming disinterested at the straying conversation as he shuffles the cards once more.

“Well,  _ No-Name,  _ take a seat. You know how to play Rummy?”

**Author's Note:**

> la miel - honey
> 
> 老人 - old man
> 
> そうだね - yeah/yeah right
> 
> __  
> I hope y'all enjoyed! Reader is finally off to a start in making friends! See ya next time :D


End file.
